Football players need practice time before playing a game

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With Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie county schools closed through Friday, it will be at least another week before high school football is played on the Treasure Coast.(Photo: Eric Hasert/TCPalm)Buy Photo

First off, no area school has been on the practice field since last Tuesday. It would be unfair for players to be away from practice for more than a week and then expect them to play on Friday night.

As much as some students might take an Allen Iverson-eque approach to practice (“What are we talking about? Practice?”), it’s crucially important for football players to have those repetitions from Monday to Thursday before getting on the field Friday.

“In my opinion, there’s no way we can put these kids in a position to play Friday or Saturday after not practicing for a week,” Treasure Coast coach Irvin Jones said in a text. “Not stretching, running or lifting.”

Then there’s everything else. You know, the real-life issues.

Several area coaches said they don’t even know where some of their players are right now.

Let that sink in for a second.

Schools were closed last Thursday and Friday and it’s possible several players evacuated with their families. People who evacuated to the west coast of Florida or Atlanta could be having a tough time getting out and/or getting back.

Had schools along the Treasure Coast opened Thursday or Friday, there’s no guarantee everyone would have been back in town before then.

Others could be in a situation where they’re helping their family with problems — such as flooding or structural damage to their homes — and not be in a place mentally to think about football.

"We've got kids whose apartments are under water," said Fort Pierce High School Athletic Director Jill Willette. "We've got kids that are displaced.

"There are more important things than football."

So it absolutely was the right decision to give everyone the week off.

Many schools on the Treasure Coast could be looking at playing an eight-game schedule this season. And that will come only with some maneuvering of their schedules, like playing games on Mondays.

Yes, we’ve already had several cancellations and postponements. Fort Pierce Central, for example, could head into Week 5 (September 22) having played only one full game and four minutes of another.

At some point, in a perfect world, we would love to see those games made up. But, as we were reminded again over the weekend, this isn’t a perfect world and we need to be able to adapt to the situations we’re facing.

For now though, it’s good to put football on the back burner and make sure we’re not rushing into something.